Art Cullen

Cowering Congress

If you had hoped for an expedited end to the war in Iraq, you
would be disappointed. If you had hoped for a modest expansion in
health insurance for the children of the working poor, you would be
disappointed. If you had hoped for a reform farm bill, you would be
disappointed. If you had hoped for more federal help to save our
environment, you would be disappointed.

Little wonder that most people are disappointed in Congress for
its inability to move this nation forward despite President Bush.
Even the Democratic voters are fed up -- 80% disapprove of the job
Congressional leaders are doing.

Democrats were given control of the House and Senate in 2006 by
voters who expected a check on the Bush Administration. Where is it?
They expected change but got the status quo.

They expected an end to the war in Iraq. Democrats in Congress
rolled over like sheep and gave the administration everything it
wanted to expand the unsuccessful war in Iraq. Polls say 70% of the
American public wants Congress to cut off funding for the war, but
the Democrats are afraid of Bush and minority Republicans in
Congress.

They expected that Democrats would start on a path to health
insurance for all. Congress has been able to accomplish nothing on
that front. Democratic leaders in the House have not been able to
muster the votes necessary to override President Bush's veto of a
modest expansion of the children's health insurance program. As for
adults, nothing has been done.

They expected that Congress would follow the lead of Sen. Tom
Harkin, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, in writing a
farm bill that would eliminate direct payments to non-farmers, cap
payments so the largest farms don't gobble up all the benefits, enact
a green payment scheme that rewards conservation, and build a new
renewable energy program. What we are about to get, instead: more
direct payments, no effective payment caps, a cut in conservation
funding, and a mere $2 billion to get us off our addiction to oil. It
appears that the Farm Bureau wrote the House Farm Bill.

We expected that Congress would allow us more help to restore our
glacier lake in Northwest Iowa from a century of sedimentation
wrought by sloppy farming practices. What we got: Nothing.

Not a dime's worth of difference can be seen between the cowering
Democrats controlling Congress and the Republicans who preceded them.
Voters understand this perfectly, and the polls reflect it.

"I'm frustrated, too," Harkin told us Oct. 4. "We're going
through a wrenching time with this budget. We could say, 'The heck
with it' and put it on our grandchildren. This Iraq war is a
millstone around our neck."

The war costs upwards of $12 billion per month.

We have a simple prescription: Cast off the millstone. Deny the
funding for the war, and appropriate the money where it belongs.
Stand up to the agri-industrial lobby and get rid of direct payments.
Put an effective cap on farm bill payments. Act like the opposition
party for once.

Democratic presidential candidates need to stand up and say
clearly how they will end this war -- the three leading contenders
have not. They need to tell us how they will deliver health care
insurance for all, when they can't even do it for poor children. They
need to declare war on Big Oil and the agri-industrialists who are
fighting like mad -- and winning -- to sink renewable fuels. They
need to end corporate welfare for the biggest farm operators. They
need to lead, because that's what voters expected when they went to
the polls.

Don't blame it all on Bush. Congress has a constitutional role
that it has abrogated.

As it stands, neither the Democrats nor the Republicans deserve
support in November of 2008. At least the Republicans continue to
stand on principle, even if it is wrong. The Democrats have not
identified the principle that voters handed to them. They need a
spine, and maybe they'll get one before it is too late. But we doubt
it, based on what Congress has not done so far.

Art Cullen is editor of The Storm Lake (Iowa) Times, where this
editorial first appeared. Email times@stormlake.com